One of the most widely used development environments for measurement and automation, National Instruments' LabVIEW, is now available in its latest release, 5.1. New modular application architecture lets users create smaller executables to gain greater system performance and decrease memory usage, while extended use of ActiveX (COM) technology allows the seamless integration of packages like Mathworks' MatLab and NI's HiQ. LabVIEW 5.1 also incorporates a number of enhancements to help users improve productivity when developing professional user interfaces, including a new 3D graph control, scalable front panels, improved report generation and enhanced graphics.